His Truth, With Love

Tag: Service

A lot of us within the body of Christ have the false belief that because we don’t look up to graven images and we don’t physically bow down to shrines or symbolic statues or figures, that we aren’t idolators…

But we’re so wrong.

Take a look at the list below and let’s rank these things – and I want you to be very very honest with yourself.

In your life, where is God’s true position amongst the following things/people?(And please let this be a genuine assessment of where He really comes in the mix of things and not where you’d like Him to be in an ideal world…)

Job/Career

Business

Spouse

Partner (boyfriend or girlfriend)

Child/children

Education

Home care and chores

Socialising

Food

Bills

Fitness

Any other activities and people we fill our days with

Where is He?
Lower than you expected?

You see, every single thing/person that you allow to take a greater weight, value or importance in your life than your pursuit of God and His will and His word –
is an I D O L.

And please bear in mind that this is not always done consciously…
You mean no harm or insult to God when you do it, but to name a few:

You look at your phone and check that social media news feed ten times more than you even think of meditating and conversing with Your Maker.

Your tithe and offering is often short because you had other things to pay for.

You just want to quickly do the washing up first, then you’ll pray.

You just need to cook for the family first, then you’ll read the Word.

Very easily, He’s fallen a couple or even a good number of places in the ranking…
But we didn’t mean for it to be so.

Now don’t get me wrong, a very select number of things in our lives are actually ‘that important’ and in fact God does not undermine their importance either. However the problem of idolatry arises when we prioritise these things above God, and often it becomes a repeated habit.

What many of us have done is just about ‘fit God in’ and made Him work around everything else that we have going on, rather than the other way round. This is not only in terms of spending time with God, but it is also applicable in terms of what we do with our finances and other resources in which He has given us clear instructions about how to use them to serve Him.
We have put things so far above God and made Him last on our list. We rush and are eager and take so much more pleasure in engaging ourselves with all the things of the world; but we forget that we ought to be working out our salvation with fear and trembling. (Philippians 2:12-13).

Sound like idol worshipping yet?

One of our favourite luxuries being children of God, I’m sure is G R A C E.
But that very gift that God has given us freely, is what many of us are abusing and it’s the reason why we’ve become so lax in our service and worship to the Creator of Heaven and Earth.

-Prayer and worship should be intentionally scheduled into your daily routine, not just as and when you remember.

-Your tithes should be the first thing intentionally set aside from your 100% on payday, not just scraped together after you’ve dealt with everything else.I understand this can be sensitive for some who are struggling, but I really encourage you to activate your faith in doing this, and then watch for the fruits of your obedience – the Lord Himself says ‘Test Me…’ – God will never fail you! (Please see related scripture here: Proverbs 3:9-10, Leviticus 27:30-34, Malachi 3:8-12).

-Church services – to fellowship with others, and render a service before God, take precedence over work and social events etc.

Again, that’s only to name a few – we all know the things we need to adjust in our lives, so let’s not neglect what needs to be changed.

I must say though – I get it… A lot of the time when we’ve put God on the back burner, our main justification is because it’s in order to do stuff ‘we HAVE to do’ – it’s when we’re tending our flock – so God understands, right?
I’ll put my hands up and say I’ve done it too – mainly with my education – surely God doesn’t want me to fail, right?

But let us remember the word in Ecclesiastes 3:1 that says there is a time for everything, thus we must create order, structure and discipline in our lives and ensure that drawing nearer to God is at the top of our plans.
Retrain your mind to know and understand that God who gave you all these things will surely help you take great care of it all, but not at the expense of your worship and relationship with Him.

Father,
Today we call our hearts back to You in Jesus’ Name. We ask for Your perfect forgiveness to cleanse us and renew us for every single way we’ve made things and people in our lives god above You.
We ask that You enable us to consecrate our lives back unto You and revere and honour You as we ought to.
We don’t want Your wrath O God, we want Your smile and we want to make You happy, therefore help us get our worship and service right in order to please You. And help our hearts to truly chase and long after You in Jesus’ Mighty Name

Restore us unto You Father, let us be close to You,
in Jesus’ Mighty Name we pray.
Amen.

“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.”[1 Peter 4:10-11]

Okay, so let’s pick this apart a bit.
A few things stood out to me when reading this;GiftServiceGod.

Gift

So a gift (according to the Oxford dictionary definition) is;

a thing given willingly to someone without payment,

a natural ability or talent.

God has willingly given each of us a gift (or even multiple gifts [plural]), without us paying a single penny for it, and He graciously and carefully designed these gifts when He was creating us, therefore we find that they are things we naturally flourish in and are talented in.

Now look at this, though many of us may have a gift that seems the same on the outside e.g. the ability to sing/dance/draw etc. – it is still a very different and unique gift that God gave to YOU for a reason!
So I guess that’s the first thing we should address – we should never see our gifts as something un-special, or common, or something that someone else can easily do!
We have to realise that in being fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14), God has knitted us together purposefully, knowing exactly what qualities and abilities He has put in us that will complement our gift in order to make it Different and Great!
No one will ever use your gift like you can, and for that reason I need you to know and believe that it is Special, Unique, and most importantly NEEDED!

Service

Your Gifts Birth your Service on this earth.
And as mentioned above, friend, the service that your gift brings, is Needed.

“…just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
[Matthew 20:28]

One of Jesus’ names is ‘The Son Of Man’, it describes the fact that Jesus came to earth to serve, therefore in being like Christ, service to others is a major part of our lives!
It is therefore very important for us to truly tap into the talent that we have, no matter what it is.
The only way we can truly thrive on this earth, and be ‘in our element’, and fulfil the purpose of God for our lives, is by using our God-given gifts and using them well!
The bible tells us that we ought to be ‘stewards of God’s grace, in its various forms’ – so this says two things;
1 – That our service is important because we represent God in our communities and in whatever we are doing.
2 – That God’s grace can be displayed in ‘various forms’, therefore we must appreciate that we each have something different, and something authentic to offer with our gifts.

You see, many of us bury the talent or the skills we have because we feel like the field is already occupied or overpopulated!
But this is definitely the wrong idea, if we read Matthew 25:14-30, we see that the servant who buried his talent ended up losing it, because he displayed an irresponsible and ungrateful attitude!
None of us want to lose what God has given us.
So stop thinking about others, be thankful for the gift He has graced you with, and step forth with your gift and begin to serve with it.

If you sing, you better do re mi away.
If you’re a poet, please word play till kingdom come!
If you’re a make-up artist, friend you better decorate those faces like your life depends on it!

Pardon my dramatic sentences, but I just want us to appreciate how important it is for us to NOT be afraid, and NOT compare ourselves to others, and just go for it, because the world needs what we have inside of us.

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”[Matthew 5:14-16]

God

Let us thank Him everyday for our gift and ask Him to refresh and revive it and increase our anointing in Jesus’ name!

The verse we read at the beginning talks about ‘the strength God provides’ and this is one of the most important things to remember.
Our help and our strength comes from the Lord God Almighty – it is He who enables us to use our Gifts in the best way possible.
Therefore we shouldn’t ever try to do it all on our own, neither should we do it for personal praise or recognition.
The gift that we have is one that should be offered back to God, for Him to bless it, and direct us at all times to know exactly how we should put it to use, so that in all things His may be praised.

I pray that you will enjoy your gifts, and keep them alive by using them as much as you can to bless and impact others.
Friend, I encourage you to Love your gift; love the fact that God has given it to you, and love the fact that God has given you the opportunity to use it (that special thing), no matter how unorthodox, to Glorify His name, through Christ Jesus.

Please Please, don’t ever stop using your gift, God has given me this message for you, saying;‘Do the best you can do with it, and watch how I myself will build and improve You.’